Shorekeeper Releases Statement on Tyson Groundwater Announcement

“Shorekeeper is thrilled by Tyson’s announcement that they will be taking steps to protect the drinking water of the Eastern Shore. This is an important step by the company to reduce their impacts on our natural resources.” –Jay Ford, Executive Director and Shorekeeper at Virginia Eastern SHOREKEEPER

We have been working with state regulators and citizens to address groundwater impacts for over a year and we are pleased that Tyson responded positively to the concerns raised by Shorekeeper, citizens, and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

When DEQ began evaluating groundwater applications from the current poultry expansion it became obvious that the risk to our sole source aquifer would be significant and that steps needed to be taken to move users into the shallow Columbia aquifer which has a much higher rate of replenishment. A position that the Eastern Shore Groundwater committee has long advocated for.

Shorekeeper thanks Tyson for voluntarily acting to protect the groundwater we all rely upon. We hope Tyson’s leadership on this issue will encourage their competitors to take similar actions. Additionally, this move creates a model for how Tyson can voluntarily address other natural resource concerns like runoff and airborne pollution at their grow houses.

The bedrock of community successes like these is transparency and facts. That is why it is critical to future conversations that Tyson pull back from misleading statements regarding the size of poultry on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and their past willingness to address environmental issues. Accomack county poultry has increased significantly and that is a fact. There has been an increase in the number of houses, the number of birds in these houses, and in the live bird weight. Houses being decommissioned in other states have no relevance to our community’s concerns about local environmental impacts.

Additionally, statements from Tyson that they are not polluting while grow houses and the processing plant are currently facing penalties for violations is extremely disingenuous. Making public statements that are contradicted by science and reality cause shore residents to doubt Tyson’s commitment to being a good neighbor. Citizens need confidence the company is being an honest broker and that starts with acknowledging their pollution impacts so our community can begin exploring solutions.

Shorekeeper has long been committed to finding solutions that protect our environment while allowing the poultry industry to succeed. In the past there has been a clear reluctance by the company to consider changes that would help limit their pollution footprint. Shorekeeper facilitated a meeting with a company that could reduce ammonia emissions to near zero while increasing the health of the birds but unfortunately Tyson turned down the opportunity to demonstrate this technology.

Virginia’s Eastern Shore should lead the nation in sustainable solutions to natural resource impacts from the poultry industry but that can only be accomplished if we are open about the problems and sincere in our commitments to address them.

Recently we met with Tyson corporate leadership in Arkansas and we were very encouraged that for the first time the company openly acknowledged they have pollution problems and that they will be rolling out plans nationwide to address nutrients, greenhouse gases, and groundwater. As with any proposal, the proof is in the pudding and Shorekeeper will continue to hold them accountable for unaddressed environmental impacts. However, local moves like this groundwater announcement and sustainability commitments from corporate leadership provide reason to be hopeful we will see more positive announcements in the coming months. “

“Shorekeeper is thrilled by Tyson’s announcement that they will be taking steps to protect the drinking water of the Eastern Shore. This is an important step by the company to reduce their impacts on our natural resources.

We have been working with state regulators and citizens to address groundwater impacts for over a year and we are pleased that Tyson responded positively to the concerns raised by Shorekeeper, citizens, and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

When DEQ began evaluating groundwater applications from the current poultry expansion it became obvious that the risk to our sole source aquifer would be significant and that steps needed to be taken to move users into the shallow Columbia aquifer which has a much higher rate of replenishment. A position that the Eastern Shore Groundwater committee has long advocated for.

Shorekeeper thanks Tyson for voluntarily acting to protect the groundwater we all rely upon. We hope Tyson’s leadership on this issue will encourage their competitors to take similar actions. Additionally, this move creates a model for how Tyson can voluntarily address other natural resource concerns like runoff and airborne pollution at their grow houses.

The bedrock of community successes like these is transparency and facts. That is why it is critical to future conversations that Tyson pull back from misleading statements regarding the size of poultry on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and their past willingness to address environmental issues. Accomack county poultry has increased significantly and that is a fact. There has been an increase in the number of houses, the number of birds in these houses, and in the live bird weight. Houses being decommissioned in other states have no relevance to our community’s concerns about local environmental impacts.

Additionally, statements from Tyson that they are not polluting while grow houses and the processing plant are currently facing penalties for violations is extremely disingenuous. Making public statements that are contradicted by science and reality cause shore residents to doubt Tyson’s commitment to being a good neighbor. Citizens need confidence the company is being an honest broker and that starts with acknowledging their pollution impacts so our community can begin exploring solutions.

Shorekeeper has long been committed to finding solutions that protect our environment while allowing the poultry industry to succeed. In the past there has been a clear reluctance by the company to consider changes that would help limit their pollution footprint. Shorekeeper facilitated a meeting with a company that could reduce ammonia emissions to near zero while increasing the health of the birds but unfortunately Tyson turned down the opportunity to demonstrate this technology.

Virginia’s Eastern Shore should lead the nation in sustainable solutions to natural resource impacts from the poultry industry but that can only be accomplished if we are open about the problems and sincere in our commitments to address them.

Recently we met with Tyson corporate leadership in Arkansas and we were very encouraged that for the first time the company openly acknowledged they have pollution problems and that they will be rolling out plans nationwide to address nutrients, greenhouse gases, and groundwater. As with any proposal, the proof is in the pudding and Shorekeeper will continue to hold them accountable for unaddressed environmental impacts. However, local moves like this groundwater announcement and sustainability commitments from corporate leadership provide reason to be hopeful we will see more positive announcements in the coming months. “